A TABOR-free week

Are you as amazed as I am about the hush that has fallen on the talking heads over the TABOR issue? If things would have went well for them in Colorado last week, we would have never heard the end of it. Much like every local conservative who wins is billed as a mandate on the taxpayer Bill of Rights.

Well, the state that has been held up for two years as an example of why we need TABOR indeed had a referendum on the subject last week. Voters there decided that they needed a five-year break from the idea. That's right, Colorado voters decided to forego five years of tax savings because of the harm TABOR had done their state. One of the biggest supporters of the original push for TABOR, Gov. Bill Owens, led the charge to take the five year hiatus.

A couple of Wisconsin supporters have done their best to spin the loss into something they can swallow. Representative Pridemore, however, wins this week's award for reaching in a recent press release...


This week, Colorado voters decided to allow the government to keep the next five years worth of surpluses. These surpluses, due to the Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, ordinarily must be returned to the voters under the same constitutional amendment.
State Representative Don Pridemore, in response to this, said, “This shows the inherent genius of a Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights."

Huh?